


Numbing

by Paris_The_Lazy_Writer



Category: Winx Club
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mentions of Sex, Riven basically dies and they just.... gloss over it???, Violence, aftermath of the season two finale, this is my take on it, uh uh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:54:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28088076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paris_The_Lazy_Writer/pseuds/Paris_The_Lazy_Writer
Summary: Riven isn't sure what's real and what isn't. After literally dying in the arms of the girl he loves, he isn't sure how to cope with being resurrected almost immediately. It's still a blur.Consider this rated Teen for now.Aged Up AU to handle the darker themes not addressed in the show (which is appropriate for a kids show, but in light of the Netflix adaptation - which is rated MA, I'm curious to explore the darker themes with an older cast)
Relationships: Musa/Riven (Winx Club)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 80





	Numbing

Riven can’t feel anything but pain. There’s nothing to focus on to distract him from it, and the agony in his chest in numbing.  
_How did he get to this point…_  
Right. Darkar was about to kill Musa.

They’re friendship, relationship, had been rocky, and unsure, but if there was one thing he knew for sure, he’d jump in front of that spell again. He’d jump in front of that spell again and again for her.

He can barely feel the hand on his chest, barely hear Musa shouting his name, but it brings him back to reality for just a moment.  


“Musa?” Riven tries to focus on her face, but his eyes won’t stay open. Every part of his body is betraying him.  
There’s suddenly pressure on his lips. It’s faint, but it’s there.  
It’s Musa.  


When she pulls away, his hands feel just a bit lighter, and he knows that she has his head in her lap. It’s as if he’s outside his body, but all he can see is the darkness in the back of his skull.

And then there’s a warmth.  


It starts deep in his chest where the worst of the ache was. Like approaching a camp fire on a freezing night, the warmth spreads until the numbness is gone and he can move his hands again. And then it’s burning, and burning, and then…  
Nothing. No… just... normal.

He opens his eyes slowly, finding Musa staring back, her tears dripping onto his cheeks.  
On any other day, he’d tease her for it, but right now, he thinks he’s crying too.  


Her cheek is freezing, they’ve been in this… void dimension... so long, and though her magic keeps her safe, keeps her warm, they're all getting cold.  


“Riven!” She cups his hand against her cheek and beams. He fliches on instinct, but he can’t feel any pain, it’s as if someone hit the undo button on Timmy’s graphics pad a thousand times.  


Not even the ache from old injuries lingers.

And then he has to stand up, the fight is over, and he has to pretend he wasn’t dead five seconds ago. Has to pretend he isn't freaking out because everything right now should hurt.  
He still leans on Musa, he’s fine, and she’s fine, but he in his internal panic, he can’t remember if she’s there, or if he’s still dead, and her hand on his hip is reassurance.

As he sits up in bed that night, he can’t help but think to himself that death is much scarier than it once sounded.  
Sky had nearly died not too long ago, and Bloom had brought him back. He was the only other person who understood this… phantom feeling.  
Saladin had practically begged him to try to open up to his team, and after a year and a half of putting up with them, and of them putting up with him – he knew he was a lot – it was high time to swallow his pride.

At least he didn’t have to knock. As he stepped outside the room and into the shared kitchenette/living room, Sky was already making coffee.

“Couldn’t sleep either?”

“No way,” Sky pulled a second mug from the cupboard and set it down as Riven wandered into the kitchen to stand beside him.  


The coffee drips aren’t all that interesting, but they watch the coffee drip for a while before Riven crosses his arms and lets out the breath he’d been holding.  


“How did you do it.”  


“Do what?”  


“Sleep, after Bloom brought you back from the dead.”  


“Oh… took a day or so. By the time I really slept I was just too exhausted to do anything else.”  


Riven tries to hide his grimace behind a sip of coffee and shakes his head, “they train you to be a hero, but they don’t tell you that dying a hero is the worst thing you’ll ever do.”  


“What, you wish you hadn’t…”  


Sky looks angry, and Riven is angrier.  


“I’d do it again in a heartbeat. _Especially for Musa._ I just… I couldn’t feel anything. My entire body was shooting with pain, and then... nothing.”  


Sky shakes his head, “it felt like everything was on fire. I couldn’t breathe, and after a while, I couldn’t see, or really hear….”  


Riven nods and takes another sip of the black coffee. He’d rather have cream and sugar, but the bitter is a reminder that he’s still feeling. Still present.  


“Want to go for a run?” Sky’s suggestion is totally out of the blue, especially since neither of them like to run, but Riven nods and chugs the rest of his coffee before sneaking into his room to change.

They get permission from Codatorta to go out late, and Riven keeps running until his legs give out from underneath him, burning with too much use and not enough rest – Sky falls almost as soon as he does.  


The air is empty except for the heavy breathing of two exhausted soldiers running away from their nightmares.  


“Think we’ll make it back?” Sky sounds tired.  


Riven laughs, “yeah, just not on time.”  


They spend ten minutes catching their breath and letting their legs rest before they sprint back, not stopping until they collapse onto the couches in the dorm and close their eyes for two short minutes. Then an alarm goes off in Sky and Brandon’s room, and the day begins. 

For the first time since he was little, Riven can’t focus in class, can’t keep up in the exercises, and by the time he makes it back to his room at the end of dinner, his legs are lead and his mind is clouded with one need: sleep.

“Finally,” he murmurs relief as he hits his pillow, but there’s the sound of footsteps on the floor. Ones too light to be any of the boys he rooms with.  


“Wow, nice to see you too,” Musa flops across his back, draping her arms off the bed to play with his rug. The weight reassures him that she’s actually there and not a sleepless hallucination.  


“Didn’t sleep last night,” Riven rolls over underneath her and she picks her head up to look at him.  


They have matching dark circles from exhaustion, and she pulls her legs up so that she’s better balanced.  


“Neither did I,” she curls up, her hand on his chest, her head nestled into the crook of his neck, her knee hooked around his leg,“I kept having nightmares.”  


Riven couldn’t hold back the little snort, but he jumped the gun before Musa could get the wrong idea, “I couldn’t even close my eyes without remembering what it felt like to be dead.”  


Musa’s hand forms a fist, balling up his t-shirt within her fingers. His arm wraps around her and holds her close, his other hand takes her fist and gently uncurls her fingers so he can lace his between them.  


“I couldn’t stop seeing you dead…. Riven, I… I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you.”  


Riven sits up just enough to really look at Musa. There are tears in her eyes, bags waiting underneath to catch them. Her hands are pale, and her cheeks are still cold. He wonders if his hands are cold too, because she flinches just a bit when his hand touches her face.  


“I’m alive, I just… have to keep reminding myself,” he mutters.  


Musa kisses him, and for a moment he can’t feel it, just like before, but instinct takes over, and he reaches up to hold her gently, and he can taste the strawberries she must have had with dinner, and he can feel the need she seems to have, and before he can process it, he turns her over and straddles her, dipping close just to reassure her he’s there.  


He’s alive, and he’s there, and he’s there for her when it counts.  


He gets lucky, Timmy doesn’t come back to interrupt, and he kisses Musa until her lips are red and his wrist starts to hurt from just holding himself up.  


“Can I stay here tonight?” “Can you stay here tonight?”  


The questions are so vulnerable, so unlike them, that they laugh and Riven reaches for his phone.  


_Musa staying don’t freak out_ – He texts Timmy so they don’t wake up to a roommate freaking out on her intrusion. Timmy should be used to it at this point, because this is not the first night Musa has stayed over, but it is the first night she’s staying over sober, and while they’re sharing the bed.  


“I don’t know about you, but there is no party left in me, early night?” Riven kicks his shoes off and gently pulls the beanie from her head, grinning as her pigtails bounce with their new freedom.  


Musa pulls out her pigtails and tosses the ties on top of her hat as Riven pulls the blanket up over her shoulders.  


They’re never so… tender. It’s usually rough, drunk sex, and then she leaves. They aren’t romantic, they aren’t in love.  


But tonight, Riven kisses the top of her head, “I’d do it again, just for you,” he promises.  


“And I’ll be there to back you up, every time,” Musa’s oath send shivers down his spine and touches his heart in a way he never thought he could feel. He wants her to keep it.

They fall asleep curled up, and the next morning, she flies out the window before Timmy can even turn off his own alarm. This time, though, she kisses him goodbye.  


None of the guys mention it or tease him this time.  


And this time, he remembers to message her and make sure she got to class on time.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this almost exclusively for myself. Might do a piece about the fact that this also happens to Sky earlier in the season, but Riven was always my favorite character, and as an adult rewatching the show because the Netflix trailer has me filled with too many emotions, I wanted to address it. 
> 
> Note that this absolutely takes place in a world where they are all adults and it's a college (just like Bloom says in season one! - except they're all eighteen and older like most college students)


End file.
